XEDHost Being Sued

**Floris** · Thu 1 Sep '05, 5:28pm

Check your policy, and see if he was in breach. And compare your actions against what you claim you could/would do if a customer breaks it. If you did ok, you shouldn't worry.

Contact a law firm and have them look into it. And keep record of the account and retain the communication. Date/time stamp it might also be good.

If you find illegal software being stored on your hardware, which you're renting out to customers, you're in my oppinion of course free to suspend the account.

**ManagerJosh** · Thu 1 Sep '05, 10:07pm

Originally posted by Shentler

Hi,

I'm the owner of XEDHost. Recently, I've terminated one of the free hosting that was using high CPU and hosting illegal content ( e.g. cracked software , key generators , ROMS ). The owner of the account that I just terminated wants to sue me for $1500 USD. What do you think I should do?

His Post on this Issue : http://xedhost.net/board/index.php?showtopic=910

You need to have an account to see this so if you don't want to register,

Username : Guest
Password : 123456

Right now, I really don't know what I should do. I have warned him 4 times and already told him that i was going to shut him off.

Thank You,
XEDHost

Tell him to go ahead and sue you. Also point out that they probably won't survive that long in a court of law considering they would need to admit that they were distributors of pirated software. They would be thrown out of the court so fast, plus they potentially open up themselves to having their butts sued instead

A confession like that only benefits you

**KingSpade** · Thu 1 Sep '05, 10:19pm

If you Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy explicitly state that illegal content of any sort may not be transmitted, uploaded or otherwise stored on your servers, then there really are no grounds for a lawsuit.

In any case, it's best to take precaution in the even of a lawsuit. Personally, if I were you I would suspend the account, archive the uploaded material and contact your server supplier and let them know what is happening. I ask that you do this so they do not terminate your server for housing the content, whether it is live or stored.

If you let them know that you are housing the content for evidence in the event of a potential lawsuit, they would be more willing to work with you than if they found it by surprise.

Log the customers information, account information (i.e. domain, username and password) and all other posts and e-mails sent by the user. Also, check the IP when he signed up and the one used to register within your forums.

Keep all this information off-site and exercise precaution. Whether he is just fooling around or whether he means business, it's always best to over-prepare than to not be prepared at all.

Speak with a lawyer and go over your TOS/AUP. If however, you do not have a clause in your TOS/AUP or either at all, you may have a bit of work cut out for yourself.

**Shentler** · Thu 1 Sep '05, 10:26pm

damn ... i had deleted the account already

**KingSpade** · Thu 1 Sep '05, 10:33pm

I just read over the posts in the forum, something I overlooked in the first post. Generally, servers keep an FTP log of what is uploaded and by whom, so long as you have a log of what is being uploaded, you will have a log of where the files went (i.e. the directories).

If you need aid in finding these logs, I am sure your server provider would be more than willing to help. In any case, your logs in general should be enough should you have already deleted the account in full.

In the future and just for precaution, I would simply suspend the account

. Suspending the account will not allow them access to anything and will save you quite a bit of a headache down the road should anything ever come up once again.

As above, if your TOS has you covered and s/he agreed when signing up, there really is no case and he is probably blowing off steam as most pirates do. Pirating is pirating regardless of whether you are pirating petty roms, emulators or a $600 copy of Adobe Photoshop 6.0 - the bottom line is I don't know any host that would simply sit still and let you host these files and risk their necks as a result.

You deleted the account, you should have logs on your server, contact your server provided to help with finding them. My best advice would be to ignore the thread, close it and suspend the users account on the forums. Log his IP and maintain information on the customer, at least as much as you can. If something does come up, speak with a lawyer and do not make any other comments to the user, simply direct them to the lawyer and let him or her deal with them as they come in.

I know it may be hard to not respond, but I would advise your staff to keep quite as well. Sure, if it does go to court, once he admits piracy or the mention of roms and such, it will probably be dropped and he will have a case on his hands himself, but let's take caution here

.

**Shentler** · Thu 1 Sep '05, 10:37pm

Can you help me find where I can get the logs of a server since the current vendor of the server is on holiday until october

**KingSpade** · Thu 1 Sep '05, 10:38pm

What OS are you using on your server and do you have a control panel? If so, what is the control panel?

**Shentler** · Thu 1 Sep '05, 10:41pm

I am currently using

WHM 10.6.0 cPanel 10.6.0-R147
CentOS 4.1 i686 - WHM X v3.1.0

**KingSpade** · Thu 1 Sep '05, 10:49pm

Login as root in SSH and check /var/log. You should have an FTP log within this folder I believe. I'd be more than willing to help you find the log files if you will contact me via PM.

**Shentler** · Thu 1 Sep '05, 10:54pm

Originally posted by KingSpade

Login as root in SSH and check /var/log. You should have an FTP log within this folder I believe. I'd be more than willing to help you find the log files if you will contact me via PM.

Can you contact me through e-mail?

my e-mail is [email protected]

Thank You Very Much,
Andy Shen

**ManagerJosh** · Thu 1 Sep '05, 10:56pm

Just a couple of thoughts

1) your site appears to be offline. I get a can not find server message.
2) From your TOS: http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:I...host+tos&hl=en

llegal use: Our services may not be used for illegal purposes, or in support of illegal activities. We reserve the right to cooperate with legal authorities and/or injured third parties in the investigation of any suspected crime or civil wrongdoing. If anything is not legal in the United States of America, it is not permitted to reside on our servers. If illegal content or usage is found, the account will be suspended and/or terminated. Subscriber agrees that the Company may disclose any and all subscriber information including assigned IP numbers, account history, account use, etc. to any law enforcement agent who makes a written request without further consent or notification to the Subscriber.

**KingSpade** · Thu 1 Sep '05, 10:59pm

You have an e-mail

.

**Zonex** · Fri 2 Sep '05, 12:10am

Originally posted by Shentler

I'm the owner of XEDHost. Recently, I've terminated one of the free hosting that was using high CPU and hosting illegal content ( e.g. cracked software , key generators , ROMS ). The owner of the account that I just terminated wants to sue me for $1500 USD. What do you think I should do?

My advice would be to totally ignore the person or better yet file an abuse complaint against him via [email protected]

**Bema Jinn** · Fri 2 Sep '05, 1:46am

I Wouldn't worry about it.

he sounds like some 14 year old idiot trying to act big. he has no case what-so-ever.

#1: he was distributing illegal files
#2: you put in the TOS that you can suspend an account for such activities

If i were you, i'd put an extra thing in your TOS saying "we can terminate your account at any time for any reason if we see fit" just to cover your arse some more.

XEDHost Being Sued

XEDHost Being Sued

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